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This topic has moved here: Subject: Marty Talks Halo 3 at PLAY!
  • Subject: Marty Talks Halo 3 at PLAY!
Subject: Marty Talks Halo 3 at PLAY!
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  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

So over at HBO they found a pretty cool interview with Marty. It talks a little about the music in the trailer....and a really cool multiplayer "tibbet".

XE: So Bungie started in Chicago right?

Marty: Right.


XE: So how does it feel to be back in Chicago?

Marty:Well my folks live in Chicago and I have been here since the early 60’s and I have been living in Seattle for six years because Bungie was purchased by Microsoft and we moved all our stuff out there. I love both cities, I have to say I prefer visiting Chicago and it’s just because I’m getting really wimpy about the weather, which is so much nicer in Seattle we don’t have winter out there.


XE: So what are your inspirations?

Marty: I have a dual personality I was playing lots of piano and studied serious music, studied to be a composer so literally Bach, Beethoven, Braun, and lots of other classic composers. Then again I’m a big Beatles fan, Prog-Rock, Gentle Giants, Genesis, I just love all of that stuff. When I was in college I was also in a rock band, and was writing music for the band.


XE: So how did it feel to get the H3 trailer premiered at E3?

Marty: Well we actually worked very closely with Peter Moore on it, and actually showed it in Bill Gates conference room and they OK’ed it. I was actually pretty nervous going into it because first was Sony then Nintendo, and then Microsoft was last, and we were the very last thing Microsoft was showing so we didn’t know how people would react, and we didn’t specifically know everything else that was going to be at the Microsoft show. I thought “Gosh, what if everyone is bored and thinks it’s dull.” So I had my fingers crossed, I wanted everyone to go wild, and everyone to clap. So I’m really happy it went well and really excited about Halo 3 and happy I can finally talk about Halo 3.


XE: I know you get asked this a lot but do you think you could release a Halo 3 trailer MP3?

Marty:It’s one of those things that is my decision, where I have the ability to want to do it or not since I am the audio director for Bungie and not just a hired hand. I have a hand in making the trailers, and help put in my own input throughout all that Bungie does in many ways. We are bringing something new out here soon though—

XE:What is that?

Marty:It isn’t a dramatic thing, it’s just sort of a behind the scenes showing how we did what we did with the trailer, and we are going to show some more angles of the trailer. Let me ask you, did you get to go to the hotel and see us fly through Halo 3?

XE:Well no, I didn’t actually hear about it until a MS PR guy told me about it, but I thought it was pretty interesting.

Marty:Well a funny thing about that, we showed them and flew around in the trailer in real time, we were able to show how light reflects off the space-tether, you could see the expanse of the Forerunner construct and how it goes out for miles, something people don’t know is we had the option to let the press play some multiplayer.

Just real quick though, Halo 3 aside, I just want to say this is a great opportunity and it’s great to be with Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, and Jeremy Soule and so on. It’s just great to get videogame music so appreciated. We all get to hear ourselves live; we’re all friends believe it or not!

XE: When you first started composing Halo’s music how would you say it came? Did you start out with one melody than the next or did it all come at once?

Marty: I was working in film for twenty years and it was awhile until I got into games, and I knew the guys who made Myst, and I did the music for Riven the sequel to Myst. At the same times I met the Bungie guys and I did Myth—Myst, Myth it was all intentional like that. I used digital tools throughout all my music but I also used live musicians no matter what. I go 20 years back with Arnie (PLAY! Composer) and he were hired by a contract. Arnie Roth has contracted orchestras for me since ’84.


XE: So just one last random out there question—do you guys read any sort of religious stuff?

Marty:(Laughs) Well we are religious guys, I think a lot of the religious stuff in Halo comes from Jason Jones, and the imagery is all him and he likes to fit it into the Halo story.

XE:Well have you heard the theory that the horns at the end of the Halo 3 trailer is supposed to signify the ending days, and that it says something about it in the bible in Revelations?

Marty:Oh yeah exactly! That’s exactly what I was going for! No seriously though, I’ve never heard that.

XE:Just that one two minute trailer has gotten theories about everything including the music!

Marty:Well that is one of the bad parts about being stuck with the Halo universe that you have these fans that are so rabid about it and you can only make the game the best you can, try to deliver the best, and you can’t help the way anyone interprets it. You know we can just try to deliver and I think Marcus Lehto the art director was the most nervous about it. He said “I hope they don’t laugh”. I couldn’t believe he said that because I never thought of that! Luckily it all went down well. So for the Halo 3 announcement the worse kept secret out there, we needed fanfare, and that is why we used the horns like that, it doesn’t mean some biblical ending or anything.


-Fabled Hero

  • 06.02.2006 1:14 PM PDT